Improvement in machinery for stripping the top flats of carding-engines



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE VELLMAN, OF LOIVELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR STRlPP-ING IHE TOP FLATS 0F CARDlNG-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 16,504, dated January 27, 1857.

To aZZ'whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, GEORGE WELLMAN, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the mechanical details of the apparatus for elevating and cleaning the top cards of a carding-engine used for carding cotton or other fibrous materials described in the specification of a patent granted to me on the 6th day of December, A. D. 1853, and in the specification of anotherpatent granted to me on the 18th day of March, A. D. '1856, antedated'November 25, A. D. 1853, for improvements in carding-engines, whereby a greater economy and simplicity in the construction of such mechanism is obtained; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and reference thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 2 represents a perspective view of a carding-engine with my improved stripping apparatus attached Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a portion of the stripping apparatus,showing a simpler method of driving it than is represented in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an inside view of the double-cam4 .gear L and parts adjacent. Other figures will be referred to hereinafter.

4The same letters of reference, when used in different figures, indicate the same parts.`

A A is the main frame of a carding-engine.

B B are the arches which support the series of top cards, and to which are fastened the double-mangle-pin. segments or rims O O.

C is the shaft of the main carding-cylinder, about the two ends of which the rockerframe E E E, which carries the stripping apparatus, is hung and swings.

D D D, &c., are the top cards, which are numbered in the usual manner, beginning at the feed-rolls with No. l and ending the series in this case with No. 18.

E is one arm, E is the other, and E is a cross-piece connecting the two arms, the three together forming the rocker-frame, which is described in my first patent, and which in this case carries nearly all the driving-gear of the stripping apparatus, which not only moves with the rocker-frame, but also causes the rocker-frame to move in manner hereinafter described.

As the gearing upon one of the arms E and E of this rocker-frame and upon one side of the card is an exact duplicate of what is on the other, (with the exceptions hereinafter mentioned,) I will first describe the apparatus as shown upon one side of the' card and afterward the manner of connecting and driving the two.

L is what I term the double-cam gear, because itis a double gear having two grooved cams upon one side of it. This double-cam gear when `put in motion is the source of all the motions requisite for elevating and cleaning the top cards, as well as that for moving the rocker-frame from one top card to another.

Fig. 4 represents a View of the inside face of the double-cam gear, showing the two grooved cams one within the other. The inner grooved cam operates a roll upon a stud fixed to the sliding lifting-jaw X, and the jaw, as it rises, takes with it the end of the top, carries it up, holds it in its elevated position while the stripping is being performed, and then carries it down again to its seat upon upon the arch. A section of the elevated top and lifting-jaw may be seen in Fig. 6.

A slot is made in the ends of each top card, which, when the top begins to rise, is intended to receive a dagger or slide V, fixed to each of the arms E E, so that by means of which and the lifting-jaw the top card may be locked to the rocker-frame as long as it is elevated in the lifting-jaw. The outer grooved cam operates a roll upon a stud fixed in the lever-arm R, which arm, in connection with its duplicate on the other side of cthe tinued movement of the inner cam depresses the top card a little, so as to lock the teeth of the top card and strip-card well together, and holds it so while the outer cam moves back to its first position the lever-arm, with its strip-card S, which thus removes from the top card all the Waste and dirt collected upon it, and this being done the lifting-jaw depresses the top card back again toits seat upon the arch, all of which operations are similar to what is described in my first and second patents aforesaid.

The rim of L contains upon one side a full gear by which motion is communicated to L, whether it be a continuous rotary motion or an intermittent one. Beside the full gear is a segmental gear and its set-rim Q, which has been particularly described in my aforesaid patents.A This segmental gear gives an intermittent motion to the pinion IWI, there being a sufficient number of teeth in the seg` ment to give one complete revolution of the pinion M, when it will then stop and be held stationary by its set-plate P turning its con cave rim upon the face of the set-rim Q. The shaft of pinion M has a bearing in one end of the stud-plate J, Figs. 4 and 5, the other end of which is supported on the same stud with double-cam gear L. On the same shaft with pinion' M is smaller pinion N, Figs. 2, 4, and 5, which engages Wit-h the teeth of the double-mangle pin segment O, Fig. 2, and the pinion-shaft projects through the pinion N into a groove which entirely surrounds the series of teeth in the double-mangle pin segment, serving as a guide and partial support to the pinion N in its course around both sides and ends of the series of teeth O. The series of teeth O and pinion N are so proportioned that one revolution of pinion N is just sufficient to carry the rockerframe E E E from one top card to the next but one, so that, starting with No. l of the series of top cards D D D, ac., the rockerframe will stop at every'odd number of the top cards until it arrives at the last one, near the doffer, and here a change is made by the pinion, which, as it turns on the last pin of the series O, loses one-half of a revolution in passing from the lower side of the pin round to the upper,'or Vice Versa, and there is then left but one-half of the revolution of the pinion to act on the series of teeth, which isv just sufficient to carry the rockerframe to the very next top card instead of the next but one, and the direction of the rockerframe being changed at the same time it will stop at every even number on its return to the beginning of the series. At the beginning the change is the same as-at the end, and the movements are thus constantly repeated.

The series of teeth O may be cast in one piece with its surrounding groove, as represented, or they-may be comprised by a series of pins drilled or cast in the arch or in a detached piece, as may be most convenient and desirable.

Having thus far described the apparatus upon one side of the card, that upon the other side is an exact duplicate of it, and is made to act in unison with it by the pinion T, shaft NV, and pinion T,which connects the two double-cam gears L L together, and the double-cam gear L may be driven by either of the three methods represented in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, or by any other well-known mechanical method, as'may be most suitable and con- Venient.

In Fig. 4, a represents a pinion on the end of the main shaft C. This gives motion to the crown-gear and pulley h, revolving on a stud fixed in the arm E. A band H about thepulley gives motion to the pulley Kon the end of the shaft- U, and thus, by means of the pinions T gives the required motion to the double-cam gears L L; or the shaft U and pinions T and T may be driven by the method represented in Fig. 2, where C is the main shaft of the card. F is a pulley running loose on the shaft C, and is driven by a band V from the doffer or from a railwayshaft, or from any other convenient source. Fastened to the pulley F is a bevelgear,which drives the bevel-gear G on the shaft H. This shaft is supported in bearings I I', connected with the arm E, and has upon its upper end a worm K, which works into and drives the gear in the double-cam gear L.

A more simple method still is to have a double pulley F, Fig. 3, running loose on the end of the main shaft C, which shall be -driven by a band W from the dotfer or from the railway-shaft or other source, as may be convenient, and having another band to give motion to the pulley K on the end of the shaft U which drives the double-cam gears L L.

Having thus described my improvements,

what I claim as new, and desire to secure by,

notched plate P with the double-mangle-pin` segment, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereto set my signature this 21st day of November, A. D. 1856.

GEORGE VELLMAN.

In presence of- NATHANIEL WRIGHT, O. E. CUsHING. 

